In Aiden’s blog post “Microsoft’s $400 million deal with the NFL may do more harm than good”, he mentions how Microsoft has made this expensive deal in an effort to further promote their brand and their new Surface model. The troubling portion of this deal comes from when commentators are unknowingly mistaking the Surface with the iPad. To be honest, while writing this blogpost, I myself mistakenly wrote iPad instead of Surface more than once. What is the deal here?

He mentions how these mistakes are hurting both Microsoft and Apple but I think it only goes one way. Microsoft may be suffering exclusively because they are the ones forking up the cash to cover this mega advertising deal that is seeing Apple gain publicity. Where I disagree with Aiden is the fact that Apple gets hurt from this as well. Apple has worked so hard over the last few years to really differentiate themselves in the electronics market. They constantly innovate to stay ahead of the game and be the number one brand in the handheld technology industry. In a way, Apple’s iPad is receiving free publicity from this screw up by the NFL commentators. The viewers are not actually seeing what the screen looks like or how the apps run but more the general shape of the device. And by this, they are associating their favorite NFL teams and players with the iPad and Apple instead of Surface and Microsoft. This deal may be costing Microsoft an arm and a leg, but at the moment Apple seems to be the one benefiting the most.

References:

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/08/24/bill-belichick-the-patriots-utilizing-microsoft-surfaces-on-the-sideline-but-glitches-remain/